Endometrial cancer (EC), which is cancer in the lining of the uterus, accounts for 90% of uterine cancer diagnoses. Uterine cancer is the fourth most frequently diagnosed cancer for women in the U.S. In 2024, an estimated 67,880 new cases of uterine cancer nationally will result in about 13,250 deaths. Diagnoses of this type of cancer are on the rise across ethnicities—particularly across Native American/Alaska Native, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Hispanic populations, with higher mortality rates among Black communities. Despite these troubling increases, EC remains under recognized in the general public.
In 2020, Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE), SHARE Cancer Support, Black Health Matters, and Eisai Inc. worked together to create and launch the Spot Her® initiative. Spot Her is an initiative to help end the silence around EC and to empower all people across generations and cultures to speak up, take action, and spot the potential signs of EC at an early stage—when it may be more treatable. It’s especially important for Black women to recognize the symptoms, as only 53% of Black women with EC receive an early-stage diagnosis.
To highlight the lack of awareness about EC and create a unique opportunity to educate individuals, we sought to bring the Spot Her initiative to the world in engaging ways through grassroot efforts. It was important that the Spot Her presence would draw attention, encourage people to interact with the initiative, and be prominent at events and locations where our key audience would be.
For the Spot Her initiative’s third year raising awareness about EC, we brought the Spot Her truck to Harlem Week 2024 in New York City, where there are higher incidence rates of EC and a large Black community.
The Spot Her truck, which was a repurposed food truck adorned in Spot Her branding and the color peach for uterine cancer awareness, was set up at Harlem Week, where attendees could receive a matching peach-colored fanny pack containing information materials about EC. Standing near the truck, local TV personality Lisa Marie Falbo quizzed attendees’ knowledge about EC and gynecologic health. Questions ranged from “What is endometrial cancer?” to “What cultural communities are at the highest risk for endometrial cancer?” The interactions between Lisa Marie and the participants were filmed to capture the general lack of awareness of EC, educate about EC and help normalize speaking about gynecologic health.
To encourage attendees to participate, Eisai pledged to donate funds to advocacy groups FORCE, SHARE, and the Endometrial Cancer Action Network for African Americans (ECANA), organizations that provide support for people living with EC. For every participant who spent 5 minutes speaking with Lisa Marie, Eisai would donate $10 across those advocacy groups.
Following Harlem Week, the footage captured of the interviews was turned into the episodic miniseries “On the Street Q&A” and published on the Spot Her YouTube channel. Short teaser videos and social posts were posted across platforms by Spot Her, FORCE, SHARE, Black Health Matters, ECANA, the Foundation for Women’s Cancer (FWC), and Eisai when new episodes were launched. Promoting new episodes on these social channels was critical to ensure we were reaching our target audience. Social posts included the #SpotHerForEC hashtag to help grow the initiative while driving viewers to the full-length episodes on YouTube.
Once the Spot Her YouTube channel introduced the “On the Street Q&A” series and it was promoted across partners’ social channels, it was clear that this creative approach was highly valued among the EC community, resulting in:
